All posts for the month October, 2013

Hello Beautiful Thinkers,
Happy Halloween! For any of you that are still don’t have plans or simply don’t want to go out and deal with the fabulous madness of this holiday I’ve prepared a list of great movies or episodes you can watch to celebrate from the comfort of your own home.
1. Hocus Pocus! Hands down my favorite Halloween movie and why I’ll probably have playing in the background while I get ready for the night.
2. The Monster Squad! Because “Wolfman’s Got Nards!”
3. Casper! Because Christina Ricci was so adorable back then.
4. Rocky Horror Picture Show! When isn’t it a great night for this cult classic?
5. The combined Halloween Episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel! Because they rock. Add Charmed to that list if you’re starting early.
6. The entire Scream Series! But really just the first and fourth if you’re pressed for time.
7. Zombieland and/or Warm Bodies! Because the casts for both are incredible and they bring you both zombies and a laugh.
8. Practical Magic! Because their Halloween tradition is awesome.
9. The Nightmare Before Christmas! Yes, it splits focus between two holidays, but you have to give them credit for a song called “This Is Halloween.”
10. And the Horror movie series if that tickles you fancy or you’ve always meant to watch but never got around to renting! And if you’ve skipped over my first nine suggestions you were probably going to do your own thing anyway.
Keep Learning Beautiful Thinkers,
The Boy In The Heart Shades

Going through my mail the other day I found an invitation to join Trunk Club Men’s Outfitters. It’s a pretty cool concept when you think about it: basically the Trunk Club is a service for men that either don’t have time or don’t enjoy shopping for themselves. They assign their members a stylist that gets to know what the client is looking for in his wardrobe, and then ships prepared outfits through the mail. Apparently if you really want to, as a member you can call your stylist regularly to get clothing advice. I’m not sure where these guys got the idea that I don’t have the time or desire to shop for myself but I’m glad to write about the service and spread the word to any of you BTs that might be interested in your own personal shopper. Check out their website and if you happen to be in Chicago you can drop by their headquarters for a one-on-one appointment.

Assuming that you have the money to pay for the premium clothes and the only reason you don’t wear them is a deep hatred for shopping, this seems like a bargain. You get a personal stylist, free shipping both ways, ten days to try the clothes on in the comfort of your home, and if you don’t like something simply ship it back without penalty. According to their pricing section, all that you’re being charged for is the clothing that you keep. It seems like more fun to be a stylist than a member to me, but maybe that’s because it sounds kind of like having a real life ken doll. Well BTs, if you’re a rich man with no time to shop or no someone who is, this seems like a great way to stay fashionable.

My Tumblr feed has struck again as the inspiration for today’s post. Brian DeYoung’s “Insomnia” is absolutely brilliant! He takes a basic concept like sleep and uses illustrations of technology to capture the feeling of being unable to “recharge” after a long day. DeYoung writes on his site, “I think it was only fitting to stay up until 4:05am to finish this,” which makes me love it even more. If I had any idea where I would put it and I wasn’t trying to conserve money right now, a print of this piece would already be ordered and on it’s way to me. “Insomnia” is my favorite, but it certainly isn’t this artist’s only fabulous design. He also has some great political and satirical pieces available too. Check out his online store for a variety of products with his artwork printed on them, from stretched canvases and stationery cards to iPhone cases and laptop skins.

I had a good time at a concert for Tonight Alive last night. They’ve recently released an album titled The Other Side and this is their first tour in America as the headliner. The band has a good time performing, which in my experience translates to the audience enjoying the night too. I especially liked how gracious they were when two or three of the same “over zealous” (my nice way of saying dumbass) teenage girls crowd surfed onto the stage at least ten times during the show. In a small venue, like The Social in Orlando, crowd surfing really shouldn’t be abused that way. I applauded the band for putting up with such shenanigans; if it were my show I’d probably have been pissed; the stage was already crowded enough for the band. I’m not saying this as a party pooper to all you crowd surfers out there.

Even with my lack of understanding of why it would be fun to have a bunch of strangers lifting and groping me and my fear of falling from any height don’t make me a good candidate for the experience, I get that it’s part of the concert scene. My complaint is with the people that get greedy about it, like the girls from last night. You’ve done it and even had your moment on stage with the band that you came to see, that’s great, but let that be enough. Don’t repeatedly make the crowd lift you; no matter how cute and tiny you are, not every crowd member is prepared lift a whole human above their heads every song. Okay, I’m done ranting, and if you stuck around through that whole thing I’ll reward you by posting a couple of Tonight Alive’s music videos below.

For all you writers out there is a ticking clock that some of you might be interested in. The Association of Writers & Writing Programs, AWP for short, has an annual conference and the deadline for their early bird registration is almost over. On October 31st the price of registration will begin jumping up for most people. Of course, there is still the time of preregistration up until January 22nd before the price really jumps. But that first jump can be as much as a $20 difference. So get registered while it’s still at its cheapest!

The conference itself isn’t until February 26th-March 1st. This year it’s going to be held in Seattle, WA. For many of us that means a nice vacation and a chance to learn from professionals in the writing industry all rolled into one. The conference is also a chance to check out literary magazines from all over the country and speak to their representatives in person instead of via a rejection letter. If you’re looking for inspiration and information on the writing and publishing world, think of it as your one stop spot to shop. I’m already registered and counting the days like a giant geek!

I recently went to the Enzian, which is an independent movie theater here in Orlando, FL, that plays movies you won’t find in your average theater. Along with independent films that only make it to select theaters, the Enzian also plays older movies, often cult classics, on the big screen. If you ever have a chance to check it out I highly recommend you do. The movie tickets are often no more expensive than a normal movie ticket, but because of the unique seating of the theater it’s best if you buy them ahead of time to be sure you’ll get to sit where you want. My friends and I prefer sitting in the couches that are available closer to the screen. That’s right, I said couches! The Enzian also features café style seating arrangements for those that want to eat a little something off their menu while they watch the movie.

At my most recent visit I saw the movie In A World… starring Lake Bell, Rob Corddry, Ken Marino, Demetri Martin, and Fred Melamed. The story is about a group of voice-over actors in competition for the movie trailer voice-over that will revive the classic phrase “In a world…” hence the movie’s title. Add in family drama and a love story that has one of the cutest pick up lines I’ve heard in a long time and ta-da! you’ve got a pretty decent indie movie. If that doesn’t sound like enough for an incentive to check this movie out, I’ve got nine words for you: Eva Longoria speaking around a cork in her mouth. If that doesn’t sell you on this one, I don’t know what will, but I’m gonna put the trailer just below here anyway.

Sorry in advance about this, but today’s post has a bit of a limited audience in mind. For any of you fashionistas in the Orlando area get excited: tomorrow you have the chance to be at the grand opening of H&M in the Mall at Millenia! Okay, so the real reason to get excited about this isn’t really the store itself, we’ve already got three other H&M’s in the Orlando area. But the all-access fashion pass that the first 200 shoppers in line are advertised to receive is something to celebrate. The Facebook page says these passes are valued up to $300 off your entire purchase. I know all of you are thinking that “up to” sounds like fine print mojo, but even if only one lucky person gets $300 and you’re left with something like $20 off that can still be a lot of free stuff if you go after the basics and accessories that are usually reasonably priced at H&M. Good luck Orlando Fashionistas!

I was scrolling through the endless posts from those I follow on my tumblr and I realized that I have never bothered to tell you all about Hi-Fructose Magazine. Now seeing as I always get the most likes on my art related posts, I’m sure you’ll love this tumblr account BTs. They are constantly posting cool and funky art pieces that catch my eye. I’m talking about so many posts that if I wrote about every individual post I’d might never move on to artists they haven’t featured. Since the last time that I checked the site, they had 189 pages worth of posts. Depending on how busy you usually are, that could keep you going for days of finding new artist to love. The pictures below were originally posted to Hi-Fructose on Monday. Nicolas Obery, a digital artist living in Paris, France, created the images. They have fantastic detailing and are a great combination of scary and beautiful, and I hope that they inspire you to visit Hi-Fructose and to look for more from Obery’s digital art series Phantasmagoric.